Prince Harry: Queen is boss first, grandmother second

Prince Harry has disclosed that he regards the Queen more as a boss, than as a grandmother, in a revealing documentary to be screened ahead of the monarch’s 90th birthday.

Elizabeth At 90 – A Family Tribute features interviews with six members of the royal family, including the Princess Royal, who reveals that the Queen did not want to celebrate becoming the country’s longest-serving monarch last year, because it served as a reminder of the untimely death of her father.

Radio Times magazine, which published quotes from the 70-minute programme, which will be aired on April 21 on BBC One, quoted Prince Harry as saying that he still has to pinch himself when he finds himself face-to-face with the Queen.

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The prince told programme-makers: “I still view her more as the Queen than my grandmother. You have this huge amount of respect for your boss and I always view her as my boss, but occasionally as a grandmother.”

In another interview, Princess Anne suggests that the Queen felt it would have been inappropriate to celebrate surpassing Queen Victoria’s record as the nation’s longest-serving monarch, because it served as a painful reminder that her father, George VI, died aged only 56.

The princess said: “Don’t forget, there’s a very double-edged sword. People tend to forget, when she passed the longest-reigning monarch, that was only because her father died so young. So you know for her that’s a very mixed blessing, and it’s a record that she would much rather not have been able to pass.”

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The programme’s director, John Bridcut, who has spent two years working on the project, was given access to what he called the Queen’s “extensive” home video collection, including films shot by the monarch herself, whose camerawork he described as “very steady”.

Mr Bridcut said that footage shot by George VI and his wife, of a young Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret, showed the sisters’ “incredible closeness”.

The Queen also features in videos shot by Prince Philip, which Mr Bridcut said contained “a lot of teasing” between members of the family. He added: “[That] is how affection is expressed within this family, rather – as with many people of the Queen’s generation – than by overt physical contact.”